Wilson Cruz Quotes

Nowadays, if somebody in America is feeling alone and wants to find a coming out story, they just search 'coming out,' and they'll find millions of first-person examples of people telling their story.

All I can really say is to encourage anybody who's in the closet to come out, and congratulate anyone who has.

It's important to come out to yourself first and be comfortable with it. After that, I feel it's important to surround yourself with a group of friends who support you and love you for who you are.

The most moving responses I got to my coming out in the first place was people, like teenagers, letting me know that it made their lives easier in some way.

It means so much to me to see Caitlyn Jenner coming out, just by being her authentic self, staying true to who she is, and just living her life.

The fact that, for so many generations, ordinary, everyday Americans came out of the closet and told their family and friends about who they are has laid the foundation for public sentiment to change. They got comfortable in their own skins to be able to share themselves with family and friends. This is where social change took place.

I watched pretty much every coming out video on YouTube that has ever been posted; I watched it in between 14 and a half and 15. Those coming out videos, and those people on YouTube, those brave, brave, brave people on YouTube, without them, I don't know where I'd be.

I watched a million coming-out videos, and that was kind of how I accepted it myself.

I think the reason why people loved 'Jem' in the '80s was because it kind of gave them this story of a place to fit in. It's about finding your place.

As many of you know, my story begins where most people's in the LGBT+ community begins... with fear. I knew I was different from my peers, my friends, and those around me when I started to discover who I was and who I identified as from a young age.

For those of you who are underrepresented in technology, know that you've always been here. Look in photos and see yourself reflecting back.

The moment I realised anyone could be watching - and this is going to sound so name-droppy - was when Ricky Martin reached out to me on Coming Out Day 2012. The Internet has this massive potential, and you can never know the effect you might have on others by just being yourself.

Telling the world is the most difficult experience of my life, but it is very close to having to live through the experience that occasion this meeting.

Anyone in public life who comes out, comes out primarily for themselves, and their life is immediately improved. That's what happened to me.

I learned that coming out was crucial to self-esteem.

That was like my safe place with great teachers where everyone could let down their guard and not feel judged. As soon as we walk outside, it was like, 'Look at these weird drama club kids.' But we all had our own agreement that we were cool in our own way.

Coming out is a means of redefining oneself, of claiming membership in a lifestyle and a social order with distinct values. Chief among these values is honesty.

There is no rule in the pink-triangle guide to coming out that you must wear a rainbow flag cap and organise a full band parade.

Being from New York, if you're gay, you're gay. I think it's important that if you are gay, you not be afraid to say who you are.

I think that anybody coming out and saying, 'This is who I am, and let me show it to you...' is good for the world.

I have a big thing about needing to know that I belong - in my group of friends, in my family, in my industry.

There's a lot of hope and comfort and nurturing in the ballroom scene.

Charlotte means a lot to me. This city has embraced me - allowed me to be who I am, allowed me to grow as a man.

I am so passionate about representation because, growing up, I didn't see myself, and now people can say, 'I see myself there.' We're all trying to find where we are.

If one less kid can grow up without hiding who they are along the way or having to believe that who they love is something that will make them lonely, then everything I went through will be worth it.